Patients and Patience

Thursday: Week has been long and exhausting, but we are making it through. The patients keep on coming. We are overfull in two of the rooms and there are patients that are waiting in triage or consultation for a bed to open up. Also one of our patients came back. He is an Aaka baby with Kwashiorkor (protein related malnutrition). He was here a few weeks ago, but they weren’t complying with the treatment, nor was he getting better, so they sent him home. When he came back he was swollen up like a Michelin baby, even his eyes were swollen shut. At first there was a little unenthusiastic response of ‘oh no, he’s back’, but now I think most everyone has hopped on the compassionate train. So we are trying round two of treatment which will mainly involve patience. It’s hard to communicate with the family because they don’t speak French and hardly any Lingala. And last time the formula was kind of thrown at the family to deal with and that obviously didn’t go well. So we are trying to meet them on their terms. So today I went outside, sat with them on their blanket and slowly and patiently gave the baby the formula. We are off to a better start so far, we just need to figure out the right amount so he keeps it down. Moke, moke (little by little). The hospital is also getting short staffed in several areas. It’s around the time some people go on conge (vacation) for a month so there are gaps in the pharmacy, lab, and nursing staff. It has also been difficult since Dr. Fuka, the surgeon, has been gone for about a month now. Joe and Steven have been doing a good job with emergency surgeries, but here is still a load of other cases to be done.